National disaster disk management framework - Bhutan
The Royal Government of Bhutan (RGOB) has set the goal of achieving Gross National Happiness through all-round socio-economic development as a priority national objective. In view of the geo-physical location of the country in one of the most seismically active regions of the world and the peculiar geo-climatic conditions affecting the landmass and its people, the RGOB recognizes the national priority of safeguarding the painstakingly built developmental gains, the socio-economic infrastructure, the fragile eco-system and the lives, livelihoods, property and community assets of the people from the vagaries of the destructive forces of nature. The Government has recognized the importance to develop a comprehensive disaster risk reduction strategy for minimizing the impact of both natural and man-made catastrophes.
Acknowledging the umbilical cord between development and disasters, the RGOB is in the process of mainstreaming disaster risk reduction concerns in all development activities and in all walks of socio-economic life. It emanates from the conviction that development cannot be sustainable unless disaster risk management is inbuilt into it and informs all aspects of planning and development process. For this, the Royal Government is adopting a multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral strategy to ensure that every sector can contribute towards promoting disaster-resilience in accordance with its own mandate, capacity, expertise and strength. Hence, the Framework seeks to ensure that all developmental activities align themselves in a way to reduce the risk of disasters.
Adoption of a disaster risk management framework assumes importance due to emerging trends pointing towards climate change and global warming at an alarming rate. The potential threat from some of the existing hazards viz. Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs), flash floods, landslides, forest fires etc. is likely to exacerbate. At the same time, the rapid pace of urbanization as witnessed during the past two decades is causing larger concentration of people and resultant economic activity in hazard-prone areas further compounding the risk.
The Royal Government of Bhutan is making systematic efforts to move towards adopting a strategy of holistic disaster management involving and encompassing every administrative wing as well as the common people to inculcate a mindset of disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness in the pre-disaster phase while at the same time developing speedy and effective disaster response capabilities at all levels of administration and among the common people. The key objectives of the Framework are as under:
- To promote a disaster risk management approach instead of an ad hoc reactive approach to dealing with disasters;
- To recognize the respective roles of different organizations in disaster risk management and provide all possible support to their work within the national framework for disaster risk management; and
- To establish linkages between disaster risk management and the other ongoing activities in different development sectors.